Chiral vector bundles (Q1794558)

In this interesting and well-written paper, the authors introduce a new category of vector bundles called \textit{chiral vector bundles} which they argue provide geometric models for topological phases of quantum systems of type \(\mathbf{AIII}\), i.e. systems possessing chiral symmetry. \par In purely geometric terms, a rank \(m\) \textit{chiral vector bundle} (or \textit{\(\chi\)-bundle}) over a space \(X\) is a pair \((\mathcal{E},\Phi)\) consisting of a rank \(m\) Hermitian complex vector bundle \(\mathcal{E}\to X\) equipped with a unitary bundle automorphism \(\Phi:\mathcal{E}\to \mathcal{E}\). There is an obvious notion of isomorphism for such objects, and a \(\chi\)-bundle over \(X\) is trivial if it is isomorphic to the pair \((X\times \mathbb{C}^m,\text{Id}_{X\times \mathbb{C}^m})\) for some \(m\). Pullbacks of chiral bundles are defined in a natural way. The fundamental differences with the category of vector bundles seem to be that: (1) \(\chi\)-bundles are not locally trivial (in the strong sense of \(X\) admitting a cover \(\{U\}\) by sets \(U\) for which \((\mathcal{E}|_U,\Phi|_U)\) is trivial); and (2) that the pullbacks of a \(\chi\)-bundle under homotopic maps \(\varphi_0,\varphi_1:Y\to X\) need not be isomorphic. This latter fact forces the authors to consider \(\chi\)-bundles up to a notion of \textit{homotopy equivalence} which is strictly weaker than isomorphism. Namely, two \(\chi\)-bundles \((\mathcal{E}_0,\Phi_0)\) and \((\mathcal{E}_1,\Phi_1)\) over \(X\) are homotopy equivalent if there is a \(\chi\)-bundle \((\mathcal{E},\Phi)\) over \(X\times I\) such that \((\mathcal{E}|_{X\times \{0\}},\Phi|_{X\times \{0\}})\cong (\mathcal{E}_0,\Phi_0)\) and \((\mathcal{E}|_{X\times \{1\}},\Phi|_{X\times \{1\}})\cong (\mathcal{E}_1,\Phi_1)\). \par The authors construct a universal rank \(m\) \(\chi\)-bundle \(({}^\chi\mathcal{T}_m^\infty,\Phi^\infty_m)\) over a classifying space \(\mathbb{B}_\chi^m\), and show that for a compact Hausdorff base space \(X\) the set \(\text{Vec}^m_\chi(X)\) of homotopy equivalence classes of rank \(m\) \(\chi\)-bundles over \(X\) is in bijective correspondence with the set of homotopy classes \([X,\mathbb{B}_\chi^m]\). The space \(\mathbb{B}_\chi^m\) is the total space of a fibre bundle with section \(U(m)\to \mathbb{B}_\chi^m \to BU(m)\) (in fact this is the adjoint bundle associated to the principal \(U(m)\)-bundle of \(m\)-frames of the tautological bundle). It follows that its homotopy groups are related to those of the unitary groups by the formula \(\pi_k(\mathbb{B}_\chi^m)\cong \pi_k(U(m))\oplus \pi_{k-1}(U(m))\). Using a spectral sequence argument, the authors show that the cohomology algebra of the classifying space is \(H^*(\mathbb{B}_\chi^m;\mathbb{Z})\cong \mathbb{Z}[c_1,\ldots , c_m]\otimes_\mathbb{Z}\Lambda_\mathbb{Z}[w_1,\ldots , w_m]\), the tensor product of a polynomial algebra on generators \(c_i\) of degree \(2i\) and generators \(w_i\) of degree \(2i-1\). This leads to a theory of characteristic classes for \(\chi\)-bundles. The \textit{Chern classes} \(c_i(\mathcal{E},\Phi)\in H^{2i}(X;\mathbb{Z})\) coincide with the usual Chern classes of the underlying complex vector bundle, while the \textit{chiral classes} \(w_i(\mathcal{E},\Phi)\in H^{2i-1}(X;\mathbb{Z})\) are extra data depending on the automorphism. (Reviewer's remark: the potential notational confusion with Stiefel-Whitney classes is unfortunate, especially as it seems that mod 2 characteristic classes may eventually play a role in the theory.) \par As a consequence of these results and a careful analysis of the first few stages of the Postnikov tower of \(\mathbb{B}_\chi^m\), the authors are able to give a complete description of \(\text{Vec}^m_\chi(X)\) in terms of characteristic classes, whenever \(X\) is a compact CW-complex of dimension \(d\le 4\) (with a small discrepancy in the case \(d=4\) and \(m=2\)). The results are particularly complete when \(X\) is a sphere or a torus, which seem to be the cases of most physical interest. \par The paper is well-referenced and motivated throughout, and comparisons are explicitly made to related notions such as Bloch-bundles, Clifford bundles of type \((0,1)\) and Atiyah-Hopkins-Witten \(K_{\pm}\)-theory [\textit{E. Witten}, J. High Energy Phys. 1998, No. 12, Paper No. 19, 41 p. (1998; Zbl 0959.81070); \textit{M. F. Atiyah} and \textit{M. J. Hopkins}, Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 308, 5--17 (2004; Zbl 1090.19004)].